There are over a million words in the English language. Think about that, a over million words. Pretty crazy, huh? As an automotive industry professional, the words you choose to use have a profound effect on the response you get from your customers. I'm not talking about "word tracks" - they have their time & place, but rather I'm talking about grammar/word choice.

Why is this important? While for most people, buying a car is an emotional decision but that decision also has to make logical sense. You as a sales professional, can assist them in drawing the line from emotional to logical with the correct words. Try to use words that invoke more emotion as opposed to using words that the mind links to monetary value. Anyone can sell on price, but a real professional won't.

Product knowledge isn't the only thing a true professional studies, grammar is as well, and specifically what words are the most effective.

For example, try replacing "value" with 'benefit."

I know you see the value of the vehicle service contract.
I know you see the benefit of the vehicle service contract.

One puts a monetary figure on the VSC - the other doesn't. It's easy for a customer to object to a VSC for $3,000 - it's not as easy for a customer to say "No, I don't see the benefit in the VSC at all." If you can get them to acknowledge that the VSC does have benefit, it makes it that much easier to build value in it (see what I did there?) and bump their payment to include it!

Try replacing "you" with "our customers."

"We want you to have a truly exceptional ownership experience."
"We want our customers to have a truly exceptional ownership experience."

One singles them out - the other puts them in the category of everyone - & everyone wants to feel like they "fit in." It also prevents them from saying "well, that wont' happen to me."

For example, when you say, "When you get in an accident, we have 7 collision centers in the area."
Try saying, "When one of our customers gets into an accident, we have 7 collision centers in the area."

One they can say "oh well - I'm a safe driver, I never get in accidents" [& yet, accidents are something you can't plan for & no one expects - but that's a blog for a different time], the other they really can't object to - as people get into accidents every single day. Hence, why we have 7 collision centers.

Which other "choice words" have you found work well?

Look around, who’s your biggest (local) competition. If you’re like most of us, you know who they are, you constantly see their sales numbers and wonder  how can you beat them this month? What do they have that you don’t? You have the same cars, right? You have the same (more or less) finance programs? You have the same style dealership? If these answers are “yes,” it’s time you do something to differentiate yourself from the dealership down the street.  When the OEM’s consistently make every dealership “look” the same, what does it take to stand out in a sea of non descript buildings (& colored cars for the most part.)?

Do you have a mission statement? Is that mission statement displayed in your dealership? What about in your “virtual dealership?” What’s your virtual dealership? Your website! How many visits does your website get a week or a month?

I bet it’s more visitors than people who walk into your showroom. There’s really no need to advertise a lease special on a website. Sure, we all want to increase lease penetration, but is a banner on a website actually going to persuade customers to lease rather than purchase? Doubtful. What about a banner on your website that tells the story of Why your dealership is different. Maybe it’s your commitment to the community, maybe it’s your rewards program.

Your store also probably gets more internet leads than walk-in traffic, right? What about telling your customers about your commitment to community or rewards programs in your e-mails and voice mails to leads? Task your BDC (or Internet Manager/Director/Guru) in coming up with phone scripts and e-mail te

mplates that aren’t just ‘HEY I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR YOU, CALL ME BACK!” or “HEY WE’LL GIVE YOU A GREAT DEAL WHEN YOU COME IN - WHEN CAN YOU COME IN?” In this day and age, those over-used phrases aren’t going to get customers to come in let alone call you back. Remember - people buy from people, and people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. About them. And about what’s important to them. People hear the same voice mails over & over & over & over & over & over and they get the same (or similar) e-mail templates over  & over & over & over & over. Do something to make yourself stand out!

Just remember - your dealership down the street could have the same commitment to community or rewards program, but if they don’t tell their virtual customers about these things their customers will never know.

Do you do anything now to help your customers and potential customers know you’re different? If so - what are they?

I went to the Apple Store the other day (something I'm sure a lot of us have done). You see, I roll with a 4 year old Macbook Air & I love it but the power cord frayed, died, stopped working. Being that I was at work working on some graphic design stuff and realized this mid way through, it was URGENT I get a new one! (Thank goodness the Apple Store is 2.7 miles from my dealership). So I hopped in my car & went over there.

Just like in a dealership (hopefully), as soon as I walked in a nice, friendly Apple Store employee asked me "Is there anything in particular you're looking for today?) & I said "Yep - I need a new power supply for my Macbook Air - I know exactly what I need." She said

"They're along the left wall," and radioed in her little fancy headset for someone to meet me back there. I had picked up the 45 watt Mag-Safe Power Adapter and looked to him to ring me up. He looked at me and said "What do you need?" & I said

"A mag-safe power adapter for a Mid-2011 MacBook 11" Air." and he insisted I didn't want the one I had, he said I need the mag-safe 2 adapter. (Which by the way, looks completely different from the one I had in my hands.)  We went round and round "Are you sure?" I asked him. Of course, he was right - he's an Apple Store Employee with the fancy t-shirt and the headset - how dare I question him! He even Googled it (yes, Apple Store Employees use Google) and it came up with....yep, the one I said I needed. Perpelxed by Google's answer, he turned to me and said

"Let me go back and ask a genius." [I was under the impression all Apple Store Employees were Geniuses - guess not]. He disappeared to the back to ask the almighty Genius and the Genius agreed with him.  He said if it was the wrong one, I could bring it back and yell it him.  I told him I would. (No doubt there!)

I drove the 2.7 miles back to the store and unwrapped the power cord. Guess what? IT DIDN'T WORK! So I got right back in my car and drove back to the Apple Store.  I must have looked slightly upset when I walked in as the first employee who saw me (none I had spoke with during trip #1) asked "How can I help?" I explained the situation and she took me over to another Genius. Who said,

"Yep, we sold you the wrong one - that's what happens. New Genius's sheesh -- I'm an old Genius."  He graciously exchanged my power adapter for the correct one (which was the one I had picked up originally) and I went on my way.  Funny part of it - the Employee I had orignally spoken with who insisted he was correct was on break (of course).

Moral of the story - listen to your customers! If they know something, they're not always lying (we've all heard the phrase, 'buyers are liars,').  Give them some credit - some of them are honest and just trying to make the whole process easier!

What do you think? Have you run into any scenarios where you think listening to a customer would be beneficial?

The title may confuse you - “But Megan, most stores have a Used Car Manager!” You’re right - of course they do; and mine does too.  But the point of this post isn’t to toll the virtues of a Used Car Manager (albeit there are many), this post is to explain to you why sometimes I don’t call my Used Car Manager my Used Car Manager.

It all goes back to setting internet appointments - “Just Get Them In,” correct? (Shoutout to Joe Webb of DealerKnows Consulting).  Of course we want our customers “in” - we can’t sell a car to someone over the phone, right? We can’t take them on a demo drive, or do paperwork over the phone. And most importantly to this blog post, we can’t appraise their trade over the phone.  But lots and lost of people these days expect us to give them unseen trade values over the  phone (I’m sure you’ve run across this). But we don’t want to!! ::: throws temper tantrum :::

I’ve found that if you refer to your Used Car Manager as your BUYER - it holds a lot more klout with customers.  

“I’m not going to tell you because I’m sure you already know, you’ll get the most money for your 1997 Ford Escort with one of my BUYERS looking at it in person.”

I don’t use “manager,” I don’t use “appraiser,” I use BUYER.  It’s all about how you refer to the appraisal process.  A customer naturally wants the most money for their trade-in (don’t we all) - & buyers typically PAY more money for things. 

I've even had people call in and reschedule their appointment and ask "Will your buyer still be there at 5:30 instead of 4:00?"  GOLD - you know that's a confirmed appointment!

What do you think? Have you ever tried an approach like this? Maybe you refer to your Used Car Manager as something else when talking to customers.

So wait - if you're already spending money on Facebook to Boost Posts, and there's an easy way to invite people who don't already like you page to like it? Let me tell you more...

I was reading a friend's blog that I typically keep an eye on, Ken Mueller is a local Social Media Marketer who is always on the cutting edge of what's going on. His most recent blog post talks about how to increase your Facebook "Likes" and I'm going to share what he found with you. 

He found that Liz Jostes of Eli Rose Social Media has discovered that if you boost a post & get a "handful" of "likes" on it. You can actually click on the actual likes of that page and then invite the people who liked a particular post to like your page. (I really don't mean for this to sound like a circular description).

Post --> Boost Post --. Handful of Likes On That Post --> Invite "Likers" To Like Your Page.

As we all know - it's not purely about the number of Likes your page has, but the interaction those likes provide with your content.  But if you target your boosts appropriately, then the likers should be within your target market!  Who doesn't want more Facebook "Likes," right? 

Now, Liz uses a "Like Contest" but you can use anything - see her video below. Be sure to watch it all!

Don't worry about spamming people & inviting them to like your page more than once, after you've invited them on one post, they'll show up as "Invited" on any other post they've liked.

Now, as I said before - the number of actual "Likes" isn't entirely reflective of how well (or poorly) your dealership's Facebook Page is doing but having more relevant likes is a way to target more people in your market.

Hope this tip helps everyone! What do you think? What are your results?

Taking a phone up properly is one of the most important things a dealership employee can do.  Keyword is *properly.*  There’s been much talk in the industry about how to properly handle a call.  There’s lots of phone training programs and phone scripts out on the market.  I’ve been on the Phone Ninjas coaching program for several years and it has amplified the results we’ve seen in phone call appointment conversion.  

While it’s important to know what you’re going to say on the phone, and the words you’re going to say to the customer, it’s also important to show confidence when talking on the phone.

The customer is going to hear your words, but they’re also going to hear your voice. The inflections you use are imperative to a successful phone call.  Sure, you may not know the answers to everything, but if you exude confidence when speaking, the customer will feel more inclined to trust you.  Even if you’re saying “I don’t know, but let me find out.”  Say even THAT with confidence! The customers will appreciate it.  

Especially when it comes to pricing (if you have to discuss that, there’s a million ways to not attempt to negotiate over the phone, but that’s for another post), “Our pre-discounted internet price is $109,573.”  If you say that with confidence, the customer is more inclined to be confident in your price!

Look around your showroom floor - the successful sales professionals and managers exude confidence, don’t they? Why shouldn’t you do the same thing on the phone?

There's been some confusion regarding the Google "My Business App" on the Apple App store recently - (sorry Android users - I don't know if you had the same issues us iPhone users did).  But the "Google My Business App" was mysteriously missing. 

Now - I already had this on my phone (I had downloaded it when the ever cutting-edge Daniel Fontaine had posted it on Google Plus. I got to talking about the app to a friend, and tried to pull it up in the app store to send them the link as "They couldn't find it."

"How silly are they?" I thought as I searched the App Store for it --- nope -- nothing -- no dice -- nada.  It had disappeared! I couldn't even pull up the page and yet, I had it on my phone. And it worked just fine on my phone.

Then today - I checked my updates and there it was! The released it back onto the App Store - and the best part is - you can now reply to reviews on it! And from what I've been told - will also receive a push notification when you receive a review on one of the businesses linked to your account.  Another part is it shows what days of the week your business receives the most phone calls (based on the number of clicks on your business's phone number from a local search result).  Of course there's the usual views/clicks and driving directions requested.

Am I crazy, or is this amazing news?  I have so many software programs that I use daily for work - that I have to be logged into constantly (CRM, DMS, Trade-In Appraising Tool, DealerTrack, HootSuite, OEM backend, etc etc), staying logged into (or even remembering to check) my store's Google Places/My Business account for reviews was sometimes the furthest thing from my mind! I'm glad the new update will have push notifications.

Have you downloaded it to your phone yet? If so - what do you think of it?

With all the talk about taking notes, and using IFTTT to record your tweets - I'd like to discuss the art of live tweeting.

Live tweeting takes a little bit of preparation (not a ton, just a little).

First - peruse the schedule (which is really first in any conference-going-experience). And then the (semi) hard part - figure out what the speaker's twitter names are (if you need a clue - Monday at 3:25 PM is my session - "Dealership Culture's Effects on Profitability" & my twitter name is @skeetle). But what - Jason Stum & I have made it easy for you -- here is our handy-dandy twitter key!

Second - set up your Social Media Management Tool (I prefer Hootsuite) - I've created a tab called "DSES" - and the tabs are as follows:

1. Search for "#DSES2014" <-- even though this isn't the 'official' hashtag, people are still using it.
2. "#DSES" <--- the official hashtag
3. Mentions (for @skeetle) - that way, If when someone responds to one of my tweets, it stays top of mind & I can acknowledge them.
4. Scheduled Tweets <--- I've scheduled a few (mostly promotion my session & letting people know which sessions I'm attending so they can follow along if they're not in it).
5. Sent Tweets - so I can keep an eye on that & make sure I haven't mis-spelled anything! :-)
6. My tweets, retweeted - so I can acknowledge/thank anyone who has RT'd me.

Those are the most important columns. You can add others depending on your personal preferences.

Now onto the actual tweeting - I typically announce which session I'm sitting in, that way if someone wants to follow along with my tweets directly, they can. I then look at my twitter key & see who's speaking (& their employer if you want).  Then type those one (or 2) names & the event hashtag (#DSES) into a tweet. Now STOP.  Hit Ctrl+A (Select All) & and Ctrl+X (Cut) Save this for later. Delete the speaker's name & the hashtag.

Sit back and wait for the speaker to start speaking. When you hear something you want to tweet. Type it & then hit Ctrl + V (Paste) that will put the Speaker's Name (& company if you originally typed that in) and the hashtag into the end of your tweet.  Now hit send!

Some key points when live tweeting

1. At the start of each day - put out a disclaimer - something like "My stream will be full of #AutoMarketing Goodness - Tweeting the @DrivingSales Executive Summit at @Bellagio in #LasVegas #DSES" <--- I'm going to schedule that right now.
2. Don't tweet every single point. People see that as "over-tweeting" & will soon tune you out & worse, unfollow you. ::: gasp :::
3. Acknowledge People Who RT you.
4. Follow Other Live Tweeters
5. If someone comments on a tweet you sent - keep the conversation going - that is what Twitter is all about, isn't it?
6. If a speaker puts up a great slide, grab your phone & take a pic & tweet it. Nothing says you can only use 1 device!
7. Remember who you're tweeting to - most of the attendees will know what basic automotive industry terms are (this IS DrivingSales after all) - so save time & use abbreviations that we all know, or don't feel the need to explain basic industry specific terms. You do only have a limited number of characters after all!
8. The event is about the speakers, but it's also about the attendees! If an attendee asks a GREAT question in a session or makes a good point, tweet it!
9. If you feel like a session doesn't have anything for you to tweet - DON'T TWEET - make sure there's value in what you're tweeting good content!

If you've set up IFTTT (link at the top of this post) then you can go back and review your notes. It will be easy to tell who's speaking since you've put their name into every single tweet during their session. Download your spreadsheet made using IFTTT and use Find & Replace - replace their twitter name with their real name - then you can share them with your team!

This may seem like a lot, but if you set up things correctly in your social media management software, you likely won't miss much (if anything at all) as far as RT's or mentions go. It's easy to go back and add your followers later.

Most importantly - have fun & try to learn something!

With what is affectionately known as "Conference Season" in full swing, you can hear a lot of talk about "which conference are you going to? As I type this - the DrivingSales Executive Summit is under 2 weeks away.  It runs October 12-14 at the beautiful Bellagio in Las Vegas.  I'll be there -- and if you're going (why wouldn't you? seriously?) - make sure you look me up - I'd love to say "hi!" With an agenda chock-full of the best and brightest both in and out of the industry, this is a "can't miss" conference. (In a bit of shameless-self-promotion - if you are going to DSES, make sure you clear your schedule for Monday at 3:25 PM & swing by my breakout session with my General Manager, Andy Guelcher to learn how Dealership Culture Directly Relates to Profitability).

But what happens after "Conference Season" is over? Where do you as an automotive professional turn for cutting-edge information? One place is the quarterly DrivingSales Innovation Guide. But if you're anything like me, you have a constant thirst for knowledge. Clearly, you see value in forums and blogs (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this).

But what about while you're in your car -- on your daily commute. Do you listen to the local radio station that plays the same 17 songs over and over and over?

Have you listened to podcasting? There's a few automotive-industry specific podcasts which are run by some very, very smart individuals.

The first I want to touch on is Jason Stum's MarketPunch podcast. I originally crossed paths with Jason because we were both finalists in the DrivingSales Best Idea Contest at the 2013 DrivingSales Executive Summit. I've been honored to have been on Jason's podcast twice.  First, we did a post- Best Idea Contest Podcast while in Vegas together. Most recently, Jason, Robert Karbaum & I caught up and previewed this year's DrivingSales Executive Summit as well as offered some advice to this year's Best Idea Contest finalists. Make sure you check it out!

The second automotive podcast that I won't miss is Michael Cirillo and Robert Wiesmann of FlexDealer's Dealer Play Book. Michael and Robert have rock-star guests on every single week including Gary Vaynerchuk, JD Rucker, Grant Cardone and so many more.

Both of these podcasts give immediate actionable tips and tricks that anyone in the auto industry can implement in their dealership.

I asked Robert a few questions about podcasting. When I asked him "Why podcasting?" He said,

"It's my favorite medium right now. I listen to it all day. Right now, my cue is full of 50-100 shows. And I listen to every single new episode those shows have. I think it's the hottest thing in online marketing. It's the only form of media that you can take anywhere. You don't take a walk or jog and watch a video. If you're going down in a basement to a gym, you can still listen to a podcast. It goes you a high level of influence. Someone is putting your media into their earbuds for 40 [give or take] minutes a week. It replaces just listening to music - this is free educatoin. You get to learn from the world's leading experts on their categories for free."

I also asked him what other podcasts he listens to

• Amy Porterfield - On-Line Marketing Made Easy
• Life On Fire
• School Of Greatness with Lewis Howes
• The Art Of Charm

Which podcasts do you listen to?

Many of you might have noticed - I've been hanging out on here in DrivingSales for a while.  A few months ago, I changed the required "Title" to "Sales Catalyst" - now? What does that mean?  Do I help my store sell cars? Absolutely.

But doesn't my detailer also? Doesn't my technichian?  Yep.  Without a doubt.

I changed my "title" to this to prove that a title doesn't mean anything.  I can share my knowledge and information without a title attached to my name.

I have the same philosophy at my store.  My business cards don't have a title on them.  Nor does my e-mail signature.

Funny story - I had a customer walk into the showroom - before they did just about anything else, they asked "What's your title here?" Why did they ask this?  Good question. My response "I don't have one - I've been with the company for over 7 years - I'm here to help you.  I don't feel as though a title is important. I'm not better than anyone else in this dealership. We're a team here - and I'm here to help you however I can. What is it that you need? I'd be happy to help - and if I can't help - I'd be happy to get you to the person who can help." 

My dealership firmly believes in a culture of *teamwork* - and by not having a title - I can be the utility player on the team.

They were blown away. 

Yes - they ended up purchasing a car from us (BONUS!!)

But my point is - the fact that I didn't have a title didn't sway my customers.  But then again - why should it?

What do you think? Do you think titles are more important to the customers or to the salespeople?